Touchscreen

Nikon, Panasonic offer two good cameras for $220

One's an easy-to-use, fashionable point-and-shoot, the other's an advanced shooter with just as many manual-setting options as auto modes. Both have 3-inch touch-screen LCDs and 10-megapixel resolutions--and you can have your pick for $220 or less each from reputable dealers.

From its stylish S series of ultracompact cameras, the Nikon Coolpix S230 is the follow-up to the very popular S210.

Its features are pretty basic, but Nikon adds the requisite face, smile, and blink detection I expect to find on cameras in its class. You also get the advantage of the touch-screen interface for things like a touch-based … Read more

Virgin Mobile promises touch-screen phones

Virgin Mobile's CEO said Tuesday that the Mobile Virtual Network Operator plans to introduce touch-screen handsets. Speaking at the Dow Jones Wireless Innovations conference, CEO Dan Schulman didn't give any specifics, but he said that the handsets would be part of a move to "smarter" phones.

As an MVNO carrier with a core prepaid business, Virgin Mobile focuses on low-end and basic models for making calls and sending messages. Over the past 18 months, and particularly after its acquisition of Helio, the operator has offered more multimedia handsets and messaging-centric devices with full keyboards. Yet, like … Read more

A touching update to Dell's all-in-one desktop

The Studio One 19, announced Thursday, is the newest incarnation of Dell's all-in-one desktop.

The Studio One, has been given a slight cosmetic makeover, but the biggest change is inside, where the company has added a touch screen and multitouch software.

With the touch screen, Dell hopes consumers will use the desktop as a family PC in a common room, like the kitchen or living room, said Alex Gruzen, Dell's senior vice president of consumer products, in an interview earlier this week. "It's also a chance for parents to see what kids are doing on the computer again," he added.

Desktops are rapidly shrinking category, and all the PC makers are trying to find ways to get consumers excited about them. All-in-one devices are apparently what the industry has settled on. Most of the biggest PC makers offer one, though the feature levels vary between the Apple iMac, Hewlett-Packard TouchSmart PC, Lenovo IdeaCentre A600, Gateway One, Sony Vaio LT, and Asus Eee Top. … Read more

Podcast: Innovative netbook with removable touch-screen

CNET and CBS News tech analyst Larry Magid speaks with Always Innovating's Maria Victoria about the company's Touch Book touch-screen netbook. One unique feature is the ability to remove the screen and take it with you to use as a touch-pad or leave it in place to use as a netbook. The company has adapted a version of Linux to provide an iPhone CoverFlow-like interface for launching programs.

The company claims it will get up to 15 hours of battery life.

Video: Demo of touch-screen Asus Eee Top

Asus stopped by to show us the touch interface of its upcoming Eee Top, the Atom-powered all-in-one desktop. Check out the video above. It will start shipping in early March.

The Eee Top is interesting for many reasons, but most certainly because, at least for now, it's the cheapest all-in-one desktop PC on the market. At $599 it comes in at almost half the price of the all-in-ones available from Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, Lenovo, Sony, and Apple.

Though it's certainly fancy with its 16-inch touch screen, custom Asus Easy Mode menu, and MacBook-esque tile keyboard (with pop-out stylus), the low price is achieved by what's not included: No Vista, no superfast Intel processor. It's a Nettop at its core, running Windows XP with an Atom processor.

As a result, the Eee Top is sort of a strange hybrid in terms of what machines it competes with. It's a Nettop, but the only one that comes with a monitor built in. (See Shuttle's X27 Mini, and Asus' own Eee Box.)

On the other hand, it's a touch-screen living room or kitchen PC, which would place it in the same category as HP's TouchSmart, except it's much cheaper ($599 versus $1,299) and much less sophisticated in terms of styling, design, and software.

Asus would tell you it has no competitors with this PC, and it's right--for now.… Read more

BlackBerry Storm customers complain

Despite a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, the new BlackBerry Storm has gotten off to a shaky start, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Storm, which is Research In Motion's first touch-screen device, was supposed to be Verizon Wireless's iPhone killer. Verizon is the exclusive carrier for the Storm. Apple's iPhone is sold exclusively by AT&T. Verizon and RIM had supposedly been working on the device even before AT&T launched the original iPhone two and a half years ago.

The Storm launched in November, in time for the holiday-shopping season. And while it sold well initially with about 500,000 shipping the first month, the Journal reports that many customers who bought the device are complaining of buggy software and hardware glitches.

Specifically, consumers say that the software used to type on the touch screen, which requires you to press down on the face of the phone, is sluggish. I have used the device on and off since it was launched November 21, and I'd agree that it is clunky.

Other examples: the accelerometer that senses and changes the view on the screen when it's turned on its side is slow. And sometimes the "sure press" screen is difficult to use because it registers the wrong character.

Verizon and RIM rushed the device to market, perhaps before it was really ready, according to the Journal article. The newspaper notes that Jim Balsillie, RIM's co-CEO said the companies reached the Black Friday deadline "by the skin of their teeth," after they had missed a planned October debut. … Read more

MP3 Insider 128: 2008 gives up the ghost

In the final MP3 Insider of 2008, Donald and Jasmine discuss Dr. Dre's super stylish in-ear headphones, a way-too-pricey iPod dock from DLO, some touch-screen alternatives to the iPod Touch, and a gaggle of gear for the Creative Zen family.

Plus, find out how to follow Jasmine and Donald while they cruise around CES 2009.

Listen now: Download today's podcast… Read more

Touch-screen Sony Walkman? Don't hold your breath

According to a post on the Sony Insider blog, Sony is gearing up to release a touch-screen Walkman to contend with Apple's iPod Touch (get in line Sony). The blog's author, who cites no sources and saw fit to post his own product mock-up, claims the new Walkman includes a 3-inch OLED screen, Wi-Fi, a Web browser, YouTube browser, and an integrated Amazon MP3 download store. Apparently, the device will be unveiled at CES in January. We couldn't reach any of our sources at Sony for comment.

I want to give the Sony Insider the benefit of … Read more

Rumor: New touch-screen BlackBerrys on the way

Research In Motion's latest phone, the BlackBerry Storm, is only about a week old, and the blogosphere is already churning up the next set of BlackBerry rumors.

First on the list, The Boy Genius blog reported Friday that RIM is preparing a 3G GSM version of the touch-screen BlackBerry Storm. Currently, the Storm, which was released last week for Verizon Wireless' network, only works on CDMA-based 3G, or third-generation, networks.

But now, The Boy Genius is reporting that RIM is making an HSDPA version of the phone, which means that it could operate on AT&T in the … Read more

Asus all-in-one PC: Touch screen, preorder, England only

Touch screens are coming to Eee PC Netbooks next year, but you only need to wait until next month if you require a touch screen on an Asus all-in-one PC--and live in England. British retailer Play.com is taking preorders for the Eee All-in-One Touch-Screen PC. It's priced at ?399.99 ($681) with a ship date of November 20. The system features a 15.6-inch display and features specs similar to those found on Eee PC Netbooks, including a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a Webcam, and Windows XP. It features a … Read more